MARINES WANT A JAMMING, SPYING, CARGO-HAULING ATTACK DRONE
DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT LINE OF AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY
THE US MARINE Corps in early March 2018 asked the defense industry to provide information on a versatile new unmanned aerial system (UAS) that could replace the corps’ aging EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft and complement existing surveillance, cargo and attack aircraft.
‘Recognizing our current recapitalization toward a more diverse, lethal, amphibious and middleweight expeditionary force, the Marine Corps requires a UAS that is network-enabled, digitally interoperable and built to execute responsive, persistent, lethal and adaptive fullspectrum operations’, its 2018 aviation strategy document explains.
The Marine Air Ground Task Force Unmanned Aircraft System Expeditionary program — MUX for short — aims to field the new drone starting in 2025. ‘There is a need to close battlespaceawareness; electronic warfare; command, control, communications and computers; logistics and kinetic lethal fires gaps in aviation capabilities’, the offcial request for information for MUX states.
The drone has to be capable of speeds of between 200 and 300kt while carrying a 3,000lb payload over distances from …
